Abdul Rahman Speaks

More common sense talk from Tony Perkins:

Reports from Kabul quote Afghan officials saying a Christian convert might not be sentenced to death. Abdul Rahman must be insane, they say, and Islam is compassionate toward the mentally ill. Such talk is itself unbalanced. Contrast it with the quiet dignity of Rahman himself. He told BBC: “I am not an infidel or a fugitive. I am a Christian. If they want to sentence me to death, I accept that.” Who cannot be moved by such courage and commitment? Rahman is being held in a prison where the guards threaten his life. “We will cut him in little pieces,” one of them told Western journalists. President Bush raised the issue in his Wheeling, West Virginia speech yesterday. The President said he was “deeply troubled” and pledged to do everything he could to protect Rahman. This is welcome news. Also to be commended is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). I had criticized their lack of response, but now CAIR has publicly called for Abdul Rahman’s release and said that the Koran supports religious freedom. Who should appreciate religious liberty more than American Muslims? When Cassius Clay and Lew Alcindor converted to Islam and became Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, other religions did not threaten them with death. To the contrary they were blessed tremendously by the freedoms they enjoyed in this country. This is a fundamental test of civilization.

What’s happening is wrong on so many levels.